On a global scale, pathogenic contamination of drinking water represents the most significant risk to humans. However, significant risks to human health may also result from exposure to non pathogenic, toxic chemical contaminants that are omnipresent in waters from which drinking water is derived. The chemical contamination of streams and water sources has become an important fate since many of the chemicals that compromise the health of aquatic ecosystems have the potential to compromise human health.
In international publication no. WO 2004/046717 A1, the content of which is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety, photosynthesis-based biosensors and bioassays were disclosed for detecting toxic molecules in fluids and methods and kits for using the same.
It is known that inhibition of photosynthesis by different pollutants (inhibitors) may change a plant's physiological state (Papageorgiou, 1975; Govindjee, 1995; Krause G. H. and Weis E. 1991). Therefore, plant biochemical parameters linked to photosynthesis, such as ATP-formation, CO2 fixation and O2 evolution, have been used in the past as indicators of toxicity induced by pollutants (Samson and Popovic, 1990; Pascal and Popovic, 1993; Laberge et al., 1999; Rouillon et al., 2000). The complexity of these methods and the time required to obtain results with them make them rather inconvenient as tools in environmental toxicology.
Using photosynthetic algae rather than thylakoids enables the detection of bioactive molecules acting on metabolisms other than photosynthesis that can be indirectly measured through photosynthetic activity (Organophosphorus, antibiotics, amines, etc.).
Methods of the prior art using algae to detect contaminants required up to 7 days of incubation.
The present invention refers to a number of documents, the content of which is herein incorporated by reference in their entirety.